Amnesia

Prison (2)

The following morning, it still wasn't great for our two hermits. The Corrupteds were known and separated from the uncorrupted. The marks on their wrists were different. Every Watcher had the traditional Watcher mark. But the ones that were corrupted, had an X in the middle of the mark. Most of the time they were considered to be monsters.

Grian had not slept much that night because he knew that the thoughts in his head were right. He was indeed going to have hell. First day back, and a corrupted. No one treats the corrupted prisoners nicely. Xisuma was lucky enough to be able too hide his corruption scars, Grian couldn't. All his scars were visible and his wings.. Don't even get him started on his wings. His wings were slightly jagged and black, but there were no holes in them. For a moment Grian was thinking that he could have control over all this corruption thing.

Meanwhile he was still trying to piece together his missing memories, he was still attempting to recover them. He still remembered how prison worked, he still remembered that you had to fight to survive. The biggest thing he knew was that Xisuma was only here for a month which wasn't long enough for him to know that you had to be ruthless.

Throughout the day however, Grian met up with Ghost and took what he had to give him. Grian continued to do the daily routine, knowing full well that Trace could challenge him at any moment.

Grian had already gained a screwdriver from Trace so he had unscrewed the vent cover in his cell and put his own communicator in there along with Xisumas' and the copper wire inside it and re-screwed the cover.

Grian was constantly on search with metal detectors, so he hid the screw driver under Xisuma's pillow at first but then resulted to hiding it in his hair. It wasn't the best idea but it worked. 

Throughout the day Grian had to keep himself from getting the tempting option of beating a guard to a pulp. But throughout his two years in Hermitcraft, he knew that violence wasn't the answer to everything.

The EnderWings knew that Grian didn't want to solve anything with violence anymore because of what he was planning with X.

Grian had debts to pay as Xelqua. Most of them not good. The biggest was that he needed to make sure that there would be a chance for Ghost and Sav to get out. He knew that they were innocent, hey shared their stories with him when he first became their leader. 

He was in deep thought at the cafe table while eating with the Wings and Xisuma.

"Grian."

"Yeah?"

"You're thinking again. What's on your mind?"

"A lot, X. I keep remembering things that I don't remember happening and it's driving me mad."

"Try to rela-"

"I can't relax, X. There's a lot going on that you don't understand. And I'm sorry to sound rude or threatening but this isn't Hermitcraft. We can't solve things by mini games or full blown civil war. You're going to end up finding that out pretty quickly."

"XEL."

Grian groaned and looked to who called him.

"What do you want Trace?"

"I'm challenging you to your position."

"Already? I've only been back one day."

"What are you chicken?" Trace mocked then looked to the rest of the gang and shouted for everyone to hear, "Hear that everyone? The legendary Xel is too chicken to take on a command challenge."

Grian silently growled at him and looked at Xisuma who shook his head. Chants of fight began to send through the crowd. 

Grian groaned and got up from the table, "You want a fight? Fine. Let's go. I'll give you the first hit." 

Trace chuckled as he threw the first punch at Grian, but missed.

"I thought this was gonna be a challenge." Grian taunted.

"Grian..." Xisuma said, his tone being a warning. Grian only held out his hand to tell him to stop talking.

After a couple more throws of punches, Grian saw a gleam of light off of something and Trace swung at him with it cutting the underside of Grians' chin.

Grian stumbled back and pulled a hand to the now bleeding cut. He sent a glare Traces way as the other inmates gasped.

"You want to play dirty, fine." Grian growled, grabbing the shiv and putting Trace's head in a headlock with the shiv to his throat. "Yield, Trace. I don't want to kill you."

"You don't have the guts."

Grian's hold on Trace's head and the shiv grew tighter as he brought it closer, almost choking him.

"Try me, Trace. I may have changed but that doesn't mean you can't too. Surrender and you can walk away and not be in the Wings. If you don't, you will die. And I don't think either one of us wants that."

Three prison Watcher guards came up and started shouting at the two.

Trace snickered and tapped Grian's arm twice. He then threw Trace to the ground and threw the shiv to the side. Grian, not wanting to get into more trouble, went to his knees without command and put his hands behind his head. Two of the guards walked up to Grian and cuffed his hands behind his back roughly, then took the two to Solitary. Grian exchanged a glance with X before he left the room.

When the guards got Grian settled into a cell, Grian had immediately sat at the edge of the bed and tried to relax when he saw his hand and eyes had changed.

Grian at first looked in the mirror provided and saw his eyes had turned black. He closed them and took a deep breath, slowly. When he opened them again his eyes faded back to their normal colours. 

Grian then realized that in order to overcome this corruption taking over his mind again, he needed to figure out that it isn't just his fear that brings back out his corrupted parts, it's also his anger. 

As his heart rate went down, his claw like hands went back to normal, wings less jagged than before.

"Corruption becomes imbedded in your mind. It never goes away completely. No matter if it's all out of your code. It ties itself to the emotions you hate the most."

Grian couldn't stop thinking about what Xisuma had said to him earlier. 

Corruption never dies.

Grian looked at the underside of his left wrist. The traditional Watcher mark but an X stood out brightly as it reminded him of what the Watchers had done.

His soul was almost lost. But that doesn't ever mean that he had lost a part of himself. He lost his ability to think clearly, but he had learned to control what he saw most times. His thoughts were toxic but he always knew that there would be someone to help him. 

Through the night, Grian still didn't sleep well. Though he managed to keep his position as leader of the EnderWings, he still hated knowing that people saw him hesitate to kill Trace. He knew that it would come back to haunt him. And probably Xisuma as well.

But only time could tell.